Republic of Mining

WHY JAKARTA NEEDS TO READ UP ON 15TH-CENTURY ENGLAND – by Tom Holland (South China Morning Post – January 23, 2017)

January 23, 2017

http://www.scmp.com/

Indonesia wants to build processing plants to add value to the nation’s copper, nickel and bauxite resources, but mining companies are not cooperating

Earlier this month the Indonesian government announced it would relax its ban on the export of raw mineral ores. Despite appearances to the contrary, officials claim they are not retreating from their hardline policy of resource nationalism.

Restricting the export of unprocessed commodities, they continue to insist, will create high-value jobs and spur Indonesia’s economic growth. Critics of the policy are less sure.

The reasoning behind the export ban, which was proposed in 2009 and came into partial effect three years ago, is simple enough. Indonesia is rich in deposits of minerals including copper, nickel and bauxite, the ore of aluminium.

Canada’s mining ombudsman: oversight at last but is it too little too late? – by Nnamdi Anyadike (Mining Technology – January 23, 2017)

January 23, 2017

http://www.mining-technology.com/

Canada looks set to appoint an independent ombudsman to monitor alleged human rights abuses carried out overseas by its mining companies. But will it stop the rot?

Sometime early next year, the Canadian Government led by liberal Premier Justin Trudeau may finally honour its 2015 election pledge and appoint an independent human rights ombudsman to oversee the country’s international mining operations.

A decade ago, support for the office faced stiff opposition from much of Canada’s mining industry and the country’s then conservative government, under the premiership of Stephen Harper.

In 2009, Harper’s Government opted instead for an alternative corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy together with a series of national contact points (NCPs) which would operate without an ombudsman.

Anglo sees incremental gains as trading unit hits cruising speed – by Clara Ferreira-Marques (Reuters U.S. – Janaury 23, 2017)

January 23, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

Anglo American Plc (AAL.L), which broke with tradition when it set up a focused commercial unit, sees modest improvements ahead after an early boost to profits, as it gets closer to clients, even offering shelter from volatile markets with fixed-price contracts.

Anglo, like many miners, shied away from directly trading its own material for decades, selling instead largely through intermediaries such as established trading houses.

That changed in 2013 under Chief Executive Mark Cutifani, as Anglo sought a direct connection with customers to get more value from every tonne of material sold, a move which added more than $400 million to underlying operating profit in two years.

[First Nickel mining deaths] ‘Waiting for justice’ (Part 2 of 2) – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 23, 2017)

January 23, 2017

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

Accent: Union, families feel criminal charges warranted through Westray provision

The silence was gut-wrenching in a Sudbury courtroom last year for the families of two men attending preliminary proceedings into charges in the deaths of their loved ones May 6, 2014 at Lockerby Mine.

The families of Norm Bisaillon and Marc Methe attended court after eight charges were laid against mine owner First Nickel Inc. and five were laid against Taurus Drilling Services by the Ministry of Labour.

Bisaillon, 49, and Methe, 34, were killed by a fall of ground at FNI’s Lockerby Mine, just hours after they contacted an FNI employee to discuss a concern about the area in which they were working, their families say.

[First Nickel mining deaths] Sudbury Accent: Grieving families wait for answers (Part 1 of 2) – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 21, 2017)

January 23, 2017

http://www.thesudburystar.com/

On Sunday, May 4, 2014, Norm Bisaillon was considering his options. Bisaillon, 49, was employed by Taurus Drilling Services, but was thinking about leaving Sudbury for another job. He told partner, Romeena Kozoriz, “I’m going to be going to the Yukon.”

Bisaillon was working for Taurus at First Nickel Inc.’s Lockerby Mine. He had 23 years’ experience at several companies.

“He never, ever was afraid to work in a place, OK, and he worked in South Africa where there’s no safety, there’s nothing,” said Kozoriz of Bisaillon’s 18-month stint there. “He wasn’t as concerned (there) for his safety as Lockerby.”

China Moly to help BHR acquire stake in Congo’s Tenke copper mine (Reuters U.S. – January 22, 2017)

January 23, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

China Molybdenum Co Ltd (CMOC) said on Sunday it had signed an agreement with Chinese private equity firm BHR to support BHR’s acquisition of a 24 percent stake in Democratic Republic of Congo’s massive Tenke copper mine.

Congo’s mining minister Martin Kabwelulu, meanwhile, confirmed CMOC had become the majority owner of Tenke after state miner Gecamines dropped its objections to CMOC’s purchase in May of a 56 percent stake from Freeport McMoRan Inc for $2.65 billion.

Gecamines, which holds a 20 percent stake in Tenke, one of the world’s largest copper mines, also dropped its objections to BHR’s purchase of a minority stake from Canada’s Lundin Mining in November for about $1.14 billion, Kabwelulu told Reuters.

Gold: The movie about the Bre-X mining scandal that ‘isn’t about Bre-X’ – by Sunny Freeman (Financial Post – January 20, 2017)

January 20, 2017

http://business.financialpost.com/

It has all of the elements befitting a classic Hollywood tale: mystery, adventure, treasure, greed, corruption, betrayal, exotic locales, plot twists and … gold.

Gold, opening in theatres across Canada on Jan. 27, is the story of a brash, chain-smoking, pot-bellied mine prospector whose dream of finding the motherlode is all-consuming. Down and out, he meets a rugged geologist, a fabled “river walker,” who convinces him to visit Borneo, Indonesia, and ultimately buy a property deep in the jungle.

They strike gold, big-time investment bankers and multinational miners come calling, their fortunes soar and suddenly they are the kings of the industry.

Agnico Eagle invests in the future of Canada’s North – by Jane Werniuk and Olivier Cote-Mantha (Canadian Mining Journal – January 1, 2017)

January 20, 2017

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Jane Werniuk, senior geologist, technical reporting, Agnico Eagle Mines Limited. Olivier Côté-Mantha, principal evaluation geologist, Agnico Eagle Mines Limited.

An ambitious exploration program in a relatively unexplored area in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, has resulted in an exciting discovery for Toronto-based gold producer Agnico Eagle Mines. In just over three years, the exploration team has advanced the Amaruq project from a new grassroots discovery to a major high grade gold deposit.

Its growing gold resource, currently estimated at 3.7 million oz of gold (19.4 million tonnes grading 5.97 g/t), technical studies and permitting efforts place the project on a trajectory to potentially be ready to go into production by 2019 as a satellite deposit to the Meadowbank mine located 50 km to the south.

New Vale pact seeks dispersed share ownership in six years: sources – by Tatiana Bautzer and Guillermo Parra-Bernal (Reuters U.S. – Janaury 19, 2017)

January 20, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

SAO PAULO – Leading shareholders of Vale SA are close to endorsing a plan to turn the world’s No. 1 iron ore producer into a company with dispersed share ownership within six years, two people familiar with the talks said.

Bradespar SA, Mitsui & Co and several Brazilian pension funds are negotiating a new shareholder accord that would give Vale dispersed share ownership – where no major shareholder controls decision making at the company – once the agreement expired in six years time, according to the people, who asked for anonymity since talks are underway. Negotiations could be concluded by late February or early March, these people said.

The current 20-year shareholder accord expires in April. Holding company Bradespar (BRAP4.SA) and pension fund Previ [PREVI.UL] proposed the conversion of Vale’s different types of stock into a single common one as the first step towards transforming the mining giant into a company with dispersed share ownership, the first person said.

Resource jobs back in demand as miners’ regain confidence – by Matt Chambers (The Australian – January 20, 2017)

January 20, 2017

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Demand for resource jobs jumped last year as confidence grew that the worst was over for the sector, with further gains tipped this year from growing investment and Adani’s Carmichael coal project planned in Queensland.

DFP Recruitment’s mining and resources job index rose 21 per cent in 2016, led by a resurgence in Queensland coalmining, with that state experiencing a 40 per cent increase in job vacancies.

DFP chief executive Robert van Stokrom said the broader trend was for more improvement this year.

The cult of the anti-scientific climate model – by John Robson (National Post – January 20, 2017)

January 20, 2017

http://news.nationalpost.com/

To say it’s unpleasantly cold might be dismissed as banal small talk. Of course it’s cold. It’s a Canadian winter. And we all saw it coming. Except we didn’t.

For decades alarmists have said man-made global warming is about to end winter as we know it. They claimed to know all about climatic patterns and be able to predict with mathematical precision what 2050 will be like if we do, or don’t do, certain things. And after anything happened they said their theory had predicted it whether it had or not.

They even switched, after long insisting that man-made warming was incontrovertible and only boobs and hacks denied it, to touting nebulous “anthropogenic climate change” that calls all weather proof of a coming apocalypse. But a theory that predicts everything predicts nothing because no outcome can constitute evidence for or against it. Which is not how science works.

Cameco defends decision to tell analysts they were wrong, but sees oversupply issues fading – by Sunny Freeman (Financial Post – January 20, 2017)

January 20, 2017

http://business.financialpost.com/

Cameco Corp. is more optimistic about long-term demand for uranium than it it has been for five years, a top executive said Thursday after its stock price tumbled following the company’s unusual warning to analysts they were too bullish on the company’s 2016 performance.

The Saskatoon-based uranium miner took an extraordinary step Tuesday by issuing an announcement that analysts’ estimates for the company’s full-year results were too high. It said it expected to report a 2016 loss Feb. 9. The company’s share price lost about 10 per cent of its value on Wednesday but recovered nearly as much Thursday when it traded around $15.60 per share at midday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Grant Isaac, Cameco’s chief financial officer, told the TD Securities Mining Conference that the company felt compelled to “correct what we felt was a misalignment in earnings expectations,” noting that restructuring costs from shuttered operations and legal costs associated with a tax dispute will weigh on its 2016 balance sheet.

Despite expecting further delay to RoF development, Noront exploration guns for gold – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – January 18, 2017)

January 19, 2017

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Despite reporting progress with discussions between stakeholders, the largest landholder in the emerging Ring of Fire (RoF) mining camp of Northern Ontario, Noront Resources, said Tuesday that it expected further delays to the development of its cornerstone Eagle’s Nest mine.

The precious and base metals project developer said the Canadian federal government, the Ontario provincial government, First Nations and itself were advancing negotiations to establish a joint infrastructure plan for the region.

However, this process intersects with discussions between the province and the Matawa Tribal Council at the Regional Framework Table that are taking longer than expected, and that have the potential to delay the provincial government’s stated goal of having shovels in the ground by 2018.

Donald Trump ‘can’t cure the sickness’ that’s afflicting the US coal industry – by Tom DiChristopher (CNBC.com – January 19, 2017)

January 19, 2017

http://www.cnbc.com/

Market watchers anticipating drastic changes in energy regulations under President-elect Donald Trump should temper their expectations, according to Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners.

Book said Trump and the Republican-controlled congress have their plates full with an ambitious agenda that includes a Supreme Court nomination, tax and immigration reform, repealing Obamacare and devising a massive infrastructure spending package.

That leaves little time to roll back the Obama administration’s many regulatory initiatives aimed at reining in climate change, he said. Book sees Congress taking aim at relatively recent rules that limit coal mining near waterways and flaring natural gas on federal land.

COLUMN-Might China come to the rescue of the beleaguered London tin market? – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – January 18, 2017)

January 19, 2017

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Jan 18, 2017 – The London tin market remains a tight and crowded space. True, stocks of the soldering metal registered with the London Metal Exchange (LME) have rebuilt from November’s low of 2,895 tonnes to a current 4,160 tonnes.

And true, the tightness in the nearby spread structure appears to have correspondingly eased to the point that the benchmark cash-to-three-months period CMSN0-3 actually flipped into small contango last week for the first time since September.

But stocks are still low by any historical standard and spreads are still stressed, that cash-to-3s period ending Tuesday valued at $10 per tonne backwardation. The underlying problem seems to be a lack of deliverable metal, even with the persistent cash incentive presented by the backwardation, which flexed out as wide as $270 per tonne last month.